Greek theaters had moveable stages!

We thought that by now we knew everything about Greek theatres – well, not so!

Recent architectural research has led to believe that there was a moveable wooden stage in ancient Greek theatres. This has been determined in three separate theatres in the Greek Peloponnese: first in Messene, and later also at Megalopolis and Sparta.

Skanotheke plan of the Messene Theatre (scale 1 : 500), Inset: Skanotheke of east parodos. Adapted from R. Yoshitake, The Movable Stage in Hellenistic Greek Theatres. New Documentation form Messene and Comparisons with Sparta and Megalopolis, AA, 2016/2, p. 120, fig. 1 and 2. Credit: Associate Professor Ryuichi Yoshitake

Ancient Greek theatres were bowl shaped with seating around the circular orchestra and at the open end an open stage. After 31 BC, under Roman influence, the stage was elevated and decorated with columns and statues and all sorts of reliefs. Romans often reused and refurbished original Greek theatres but also built the semi-circular model of their own where this back stage was automatically attached to the seating area.

After excavations started in 2007, the research team from Komamoto University discovered three stone rows and a kind of storage room beside the stage of Messene’s theatre. When a similar feature was found in Megalopolis and Sparta as well, they started questioning the function of these elements. Their conclusion was that the stone rows would have supported wooden background picture panels that could be wheeled into place and that the storage room would have held them when not in use.

This image shows the reconstruction of the wheeled wooden skene of the Messene Theatre. The wooden stage building (front) is drawn by solid lines, and the hypothetical scene building (back) by gray lines. Adapted from R. Yoshitake, The Movable Stage in Hellenistic Greek Theatres. New Documentation form Messene and Comparisons with Sparta and Megalopolis, AA, 2016/2, p. 123, fig. 6. (drawing by K. Oyama). Credit: Associate Professor Ryuichi Yoshitake & K. Oyama

The Greek theatres had a proskenion, i.e. a one-story building placed on the stage and that functioned as a stage background. Behind this proskenion was a two-story skene that was used as a dressing room for the actors but also as an extra stage background. Now the question arose whether these buildings were made of stone and fixed or made of wood and moveable. They opted for the latest and since moving the massive construction of proskenion and attached skene is highly improbable, they concluded that each building was rolled out separately, each using its own set of two stone rows to move along in and out of the storage room.

Ancient literature indeed mentions rotating devices, but the finds at Messene seem to confirm that they existed as early as the Hellenistic period although we still don’t know what they really looked like.

The research team of Komamoto University in Japan has even come up with two drawings explaining their theory – see above.

An unexpected encounter with Alexander at Delphi

Speaking of Delphi, the pictures that come to mind are those of the great Temple of Apollo, the reconstructed Treasury of the Athenians, and the impressive Stadium, but who will notice the scanty walls labeled as Offering of Craterus?

Squeezed between the Temple of Apollo and the Greek Theatre is an inconspicuous rectangular building measuring 15x35 meters, probably a portico with columns in the front, not unlike the Treasury of the Athenians. Thanks to the inscription on the back wall it appears that this was a Pan-Hellenic sanctuary, known in antiquity as the ex-voto of Craterus, one of the generals and friends of Alexander the Great. These ten verses also reveal that this monument was dedicated by Craterus’ son with Phila, the daughter of Antipater, who was Regent of Macedonia while Alexander was campaigning in Asia. This dedication dates probably from around 320 BC, i.e., after the death of General Craterus.

Inside stood a bronze sculpture, now lost, representing Alexander the Great and Craterus on a lion hunt. Plutarch tells us that this bronze group was created by Lysippos and Leochares, the most famous artists of the 4^th century BC, while Pliny only mentions Lysippos.

The theme of the lion hunt commemorated the incident when Craterus saved Alexander’s life during such a hunting event in the East.

The best-known lion hunt is the pebble mosaic floor that was found at the House of Dionysus in Pella and which is now exhibited at the local museum. Here, both Alexander and Craterus are on foot, attacking the lion at the center of the picture. Another depiction of the same scene was found in Messene and is now on display at the Louvre in Paris. Here we see Craterus on horseback and Alexander on foot, attacking the lion caught between them. It is not documented which of the two compositions was cast in bronze here in Delphi, but it is quite exciting to locate the very building where this special monument once stood!

[Click here to see more pictures of Delphi]

Feneos, one of the many sanctuaries of Asclepius

Feneos lies close to Corinth at the foot of Mount Cyllene, the mythical birthplace of Hermes. Yet the village’s reputation was made when a temple as part of an Asclepion was discovered in the 1950s. Now a good fifty years later, new excavations have confirmed the importance of Asclepius’ presence at this site.

[Picture from the International Business Times]

The original sanctuary seems to date from the end of the 4th century BC, and the town reached its peak about 200 years later when the main hall was rebuilt and new statues were added. Archaeologists have found a pedestal carrying an inscription referring to the statues of Asclepius and his daughter Hygeia made by the sculptor Attalus. Asclepius, the god of medicine, was depicted three times larger than life and seated next to the standing Hygeia, represented only twice life size. The center of the hall was covered with a mosaic floor in geometric patterns. In the room behind this hall, the base for two bronze statues was found, and it seems these statues were replaced by stone ones at a later date. In front of these now-vanished effigies stood a marble sacrificial table. At the entrance, a ramp led to a courtyard that was once lavishly decorated and plastered with colorful mortar.

So far, we don’t know what really happened here, but supposedly the healing sanctuary was destroyed by an earthquake at some time during the first century AD and rebuilt to serve Roman imperial worship instead.

Isn’t it striking that beyond the renowned Asclepion of Epidaurus with important branches on the island of Cos and at Pergamon in modern Turkey (see: Pergamon is simply huge), there are also several smaller sanctuaries where Asclepius was venerated for instance in Trikka or Trikala, Gortyn, Tegea, Messene, Athens, Piraeus and Titani in Greece or Cnidos in Turkey (see: What did Alexander the Great know of Cnidos?) or Butrint in modern Albania (see: The surprise of Butrint, ancient Buthrotum in Epirus), and there probably are many more. The cult also moved to the Italian mainland in early antiquity, but we know for sure that in 293 BC, the sacred snake was taken from Epidaurus to the Tiber Island to cure a plague.

All these sanctuaries were erected in places of great natural beauty, where the physician-priests practiced a healing ritual centered around dream therapy. After preliminary treatment, the patient underwent a series of cleansing baths and purgations and had to follow a special diet for several days. When entering the inner sanctuary, the patient had to make some kind of offering (gold, silver, or a marble statue) after which the priest would put him in the right frame of mind, probably using some narcotics like opium made from the poppy seeds. He was then ready to receive a healing dream from Asclepius.

Messene (Greece) founded by Epaminondas

The city of Messene came in the news lately as a candidate to be put on the list of World Heritage Sites of UNESCO. The name of Messene did not ring a bell with me, but its founder, Epaminondas, does.

Epaminondas founded Messene in 369 BC and, together with Pelopidas, was one of the most brilliant generals of Thebes. That happened exactly one year before later King Philip of Macedonia (the father of Alexander the Great) went to Thebes as a hostage at about thirteen years of age. He stayed at the house of General and statesman Pammenes, who was befriended by Epaminondas. Philip did not waste his time in the principal city of Boeotia, which in those days was the dominant power in Greece, and kept his eyes and ears wide open.

Epaminondas had been victorious over the Spartans at the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC and is mentioned in history as the supreme master of warfare before Philip II – nothing less. Well, he was the one who applied shock tactics and combined actions by both cavalry and infantry. Pelopidas was equally talented but died in 364 during the battle in Thessaly, leaving Epaminondas in sole charge of Theban affairs. Eventually, this skilled general was killed when facing the combined forces of Athens, Sparta, Elis, and Achaea in 362 BC, by which time Philip had returned to his homeland, Macedonia. But while in Thebes, Philip would have watched how the famous and invincible Sacred Band was trained – an elite corps of three hundred Thebans. It is said that the corps was composed of 150 couples of lovers who would fight to the death, were it only to protect or save their partner. Ironically, the Band was entirely annihilated by Alexander, fighting under his father’s command in 338 BC at Chaironeia.

But Messene was the work of Epaminondas, who managed to fortify the city in 85 days, building a wall of nine kilometers long and nine meters high, strengthened by 30 guard towers. There were only two entrances, one being the Arcadia Gate to the north and the Laconia Gate to the southeast. There was enough agricultural land and an important spring (Klepsydra) inside the walls to withstand any siege – which the Spartans tried out pretty soon, of course. Messene still flourished in Hellenistic times, and the Romans made it the capital of the Messene State.

Today, Messene is one of the most important archaeological sites in the Peloponnese with nicely excavated and restored remains of many buildings like the Asclepion, the Temple of Poseidon, the Sanctuary of Demeter, and the Dioskouri, the Propylaea of the Agora, the Stadium and the Gymnasium, as well as the exceptional theatre that may have inspired even the Romans. The Arcadia Gate, next to the museum, has preserved its two square flanking towers on the outer side surrounding a circular ward of nearly 20 meters in diameter; from here, the layout of the walls can easily be followed in the landscape.

The Peloponnese, in the southern region of Greece, is generally ignored by today’s tourists and is even worse off than Macedonia. It has, however, lots of unique and impressive remains to offer to those intrepid travelers who take the time to investigate and make the effort … to be highly rewarded, not only by the many antique remains but also by the breathtaking landscape!

[Pictures from Wikipedia]